One of the best teachers who has taught me. Very loving and kind. We were never encouraged to write the exam in English, which was a common practice in other schools. I still remember some Slokas..... And credit goes entirely to her. She introduced RSP in school and saw to it that we were active. Miss those good old days. Indeed she was a teacher par excellence. More a friend than a teacher. Love her." 
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I have known Maragadham from 1989 onwards. She taught Sanskrit India. After she migrated to USA, she has conducted classes for all the age groups throughout the United States. She is very flexible, patient and very good. She has been teaching Rohan for the past several years. In spite of being a teenager, Rohan has a keen interest in learning from her. This speaks volumes of her capabilities. I can go on and on about the camps she conducts, temple volunteering etc etc." A very knowledgeable, dedicated teacher; makes learning interesting and fun by referencing a lot of stories and anectodotes from various scriptures and texts." |
Margatham Sundersan is a poet, scholar of Sanskrit, Tamil --- a genuinely kind person with a sense of humor. I often reminisce how I came to meet and know this gracious lady. It was over two decades ago that I had newly arrived in the D.C. area and was commissioned to bring a performance to the Sackler Gallery (Smithsonian in conjunction with an eminent photo exhibit "Life by the Ganges" by noted photographer Raghbir Singh. I was also inspired by his images and wished to bring the spirit of King Bhageertha who had made the Ganga descend and flow on the Earth. A friend suggested to talk to a person who had just arrived here. After a brief intro on the phone she was willing to write the lyrics for the dance "Descent of Ganga." It was nothing short of Divine blessing.
Later Maragatham taught Sanskrit and music to our summer campers at Sutradhar Institute of Dance & Related Arts until she moved to Chicago. Recently 2014-5, Anilla Kumari and I were in the midst of our ambitious collaborative work "Sita, Gentle Warrior" to be premiered at Dace Place. Again, I was looking for new lyrics that would depict the image and spirit of the Sita for the new millennium. After exchanges of ideas she came up with final lyrics and set them to Ragas. These new lyrics on Sita are so beautiful and empowering that every young girl should hear them. Her enthusiasm for her art and life is boundless and all this comes with a humble spirit."
Nilimma Devi
My acquaintance with Maragatham (aka Mara) started 10 years ago and still continuing now as her student in Sloka class. She is a wonderful teacher and her classes are very interesting. Previously I was under the impression that she was taking classes only for kids and missed good opportunity like Soundarya Lahari class. Afterwards I joined for Lalitha Sahasranamam, Narayaneeyam and now still continuing with Vishnu sahasranamam class….. Every Sunday I am looking forward for this one hour and do not want to miss the class. The reason is at least for an hour I can forget all the other duties and spend my time in listening to spiritual discourse. She is very knowledgeable and narrates all related incidents from Bhagawatham, Ramayanam, etc…by listening for an hour forgetting ourselves and having a part of Satsang group. I pray for her continuous effort and dedication in her work to grow so that lot of people can benefit spiritually." Maragatham is an excellent teacher and interpreter of scriptures. Puranas and stotras. Her knowledge of scriptures and leading acharyas is deep and she has an appealing way of presenting their commentaries on texts such as Lalitha Sahasranama, Narayaneeyam, Vishnu Sahasranama etc. She has a special skill of linking various scriptures and nuances between them and presenting them in a way that makes it easy to understand and appreciate. As a musician and teacher, her knowledge of Carnatic music and the compositions of the masters along with the ability to recall and link them to the texts being studied is superb. She is very friendly and approachable. We are very fortunate in having her as a friend as well. 
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I was fortunate to spend some time with Ms. Maragadam - our Priya Samskrita Acharya from Rosary matric, a teacher who clearly made a difference in our lives. Meeting her after 30 years, it was amazing to see Maramani Sundaresan still inspire and teach this beautiful language online, to children and adults world over. Watching her teach in her cosy classroom- her living room in Chicago after 3 decades.. even as she sat cross-legged and chanted shlokas with the same phonetic precision.. and emphatic intonations, it was a delight to hear Ma'am interpret and translate the sandhi and vigraha split of a Vishnu Sahasarnama shloka. |
We know you as a Sanskrit and Tamizh Scholar, Composer, singer, teacher par excellence, actor, playwright and above all our wonderful friend who is always affectionate to everyone. In addition to all this we found out on Sunday that you are a wonderful speaker as well.!! What a lovely speech complimenting the students, the parents , the teacher while explaining the subtleties of the art form!! You wear all these hats with such humility and carry yourself with such dignity. We are truly blessed to have you in our live
Dr. Lakshmi Natarajan
"Rasaanubhavam by Samskriti Foundation at Madden Theater, Naperville. Ravikiran is seen here trying to set the verse to music (from left): emcee Vandana Iyengar, Chitravina Ravikiran, organizer Shoba Natarajan, Maragatham Sundaresan and Sudha Chandrasekhar. “Rasaanubhavam by Samskriti Foundation at Madden Theater, Naperville. Ravikiran is seen here trying to set the verse to music (from left): emcee Vandana Iyengar, Chitravina Ravikiran, organizer Shoba Natarajan, Maragatham Sundaresan and Sudha Chandrasekhar. CHICAGO: Chicago Samskriti Foundation hosted “Rasaanubhavam: an interactive exploration of Raga, Rasa and Rhythm,” conceptualized by SF’s founder-director Shoba Natarajan within its “Anubhava” (experience) series of workshops, here at Madden Theater, April 26.
Presenters were Sanskritist scholar Maragatham Sundaresan, percussionist Vinod Gopinath, musician-vocalist Chitravina Ravikiran and Bharat Natyam danseuse Sudha Chandrasekhar. They spoke respectively on the Indian notion and pursuit of aesthetic ‘taste’ (rasa), generated by melodic structure (raga), rhythm (tala), and visual expression (abhinaya), coming together finally in a spontaneous ensemble.
Sundaresan commented on rasa chapter of Natya Shastra, foundational treatise on the elements and principles of Indian theater. The performance revolves around evoking and sustaining (aesthetic) ‘sentiment’ (rasa), traditionally eight with tranquillity added later. She illustrated through ‘humor’ (hasya-rasa), describing its causes, psychophysical effects and accompanying transitory mental states. Inferior characters are more prone to uncontrolled laughter. Chandrasekhar’s students, Mallika Sarma and Ashwaty Chennat, demonstrated its six grades. Hasya, as a subsidiary, even trivial rasa difficult to distinguish from the laughter reflex, may not be the best choice to illustrate.
Gopinath demonstrated the three dimensions of rhythm, namely speed (tempo), flow (nadai) and repetitive cycles (talam). Speed is typically tracked in multiples of 2 and helps reflect emotional state. Of the different nadais (tisram, catusram, etc.), he showed how sankeerna nadai of nine beats (5+4) could evoke the tranquil gait of an elephant, and khandam anger as in the vigorous dance (tandava) of Shiva.
He started with the most common talam, the eight-beat Aadi, which remains constant irrespective of the tempo of the music. The 35 talams, which define “paragraph length,” can be executed in different nadais.
Gopinath also touched upon the more complex talams based on a non-integral number of beats (2.5, 3.5, etc.). Though rhythm may reinforce the pertinent emotion, percussion in its supportive role must match the pace of music and dance, which generate rasa more directly. Ravikiran observed that whereas the modes of medieval western music resembled ragas, everything has now been reduced to harmony in major and minor scales. The formulaic permutation and sequence of notes in Indian ragas make all the difference. Shankarabharanam, equivalent of major scale, is considered cheerful.
Minor notes are exploited for melancholy: Shubapantuvaraali (Hindustani Todi), for example, exudes such sadness that it is typically heard on All India Radio upon demise of a great personage. Whereas gliding (meend) between notes is central to Hindustani ornamentation (gamaka), oscillation (kampitam) unique to Carnatic music opens up richer possibilities of emotional nuance: the singer may be saying “ma” without actually touching this fourth, what happens between and around notes is more important than the actual frequency of the note. This child-prodigy, who amazed scholarly connoisseurs at age 2 through effortless recognition of ragas, took listeners through a fascinating exploration of their subtleties, how substitution or varied handling of a note could transform its emotional coloring. Conversely, distinctions between proximate ragas, e.g., Shree and Madhyamaavati, must be maintained.
Whether to render a raga only briefly to provide contrast or to develop it at length, depends on the rasa the musician wants to evoke that day. Voice culture is more mental than physical: listening to masters until the raga becomes instinctive is critical. Sudha Chandrasekhar, almost 75, from Michigan mentioned the four kinds of abhinaya. As Sarma and Chennat did an invocatory dance to Ganesha, she indicated the symbolic gestures (mudra) depicting trunk, etc. that evoke wonder at a chubby child cavorting. Storytelling thus becomes compelling.
Unprepared, she had children act out love at first sight in “who verily could she be?” (Yaaro Ivar Yaaro in ragam Bhairavi), boys playing Rama, girls Sita, which became a hilarious (hasya) workshop indeed.
To illustrate how lyrics, raga, tala and abhinaya could combine spontaneously to generate the experience of rasa, Sundaresan composed an extempore verse that described the arrival of spring in Chicago. As Ravikiran sang the words in ragam Bilahari to Gopinath’s Aadi talam, Chandrasekhar mimed the scenery and exhilarating mood.
They were asked to explain their choices, the creative process itself, by the lovers of Indian culture and connoisseurs enjoying the rasa, those present being described in the Sanskrit verse itself.
Elizabeth Visuvalingam